The 45-year-old tourist from San Diego was visiting Pacific Grove when she decided she wanted to watch Tuesday's sunset from a dinghy in the middle of the Monterey Bay.

She was one and a half miles offshore when her dinghy's motor failed at 6:30 p.m., and the dinghy began losing air.

The woman tried to signal for help by using visual distress signals, but Tuesday night's heavy fog shrouded the sky, Coast Guard officers said. She was not wearing a wetsuit, but she had a life jacket on.

The woman spent the night partially submerged in the ocean as frigid water temperatures dropped to the low 50s.

A fisherman found her alive at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday and alerted the Coast Guard.

A Coast Guard ship was launched from Monterey and rescuers pulled the woman out of the ocean at 9:39 a.m. She was suffering from hypothermia, but was remarkably alert and responsive considering what she had just went through, U.S. Coast Guard Monterey Division Chief Mike Aguilera said.

The only reason why she survived was likely because of the life jacket, Aguilera said. Even with a life jacket, a person can normally only survive up to 10 hours in 50-degree water, he said.

Firefighters transported the woman to a hospital for treatment and she is expected to be OK.

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Forty years ago, one of the greatest boxing matches in history took place in an unlikely setting: the capital of the Philippines. Muhammad Ali's epic win over great rival Joe Frazier in 1975 became known as the "Thrilla in Manila."